The Cult of the Great Pumpkin is pleased to announce we will be participating in the 2010 Countdown to Halloween:

“The Halloween Countdown is something of a virtual neighborhood to go trick or treating in. Imagine a neighborhood where all of the neighbors really got into the spirit of the holiday and went all out with decorating their yards and homes and on top of that also handed out the coolest treats whenever some kid in a costume rang their doorbell. Well, you are that kid in a costume, and the participants in the countdown are the neighbors with the cool houses and candy. When you visit their blogs, you will essentially be ringing their doorbell and shouting “Trick or treat.” rewarded by a solid thunk at the bottom of your plastic Halloween bucket which is their post for the day. In a way that’s even better than the actual Halloween (no way! I hear you saying) you get to ring their doorbell and trick or treat every single day throughout October. Not only that, but there is bound to be over 100 houses for you to visit each day as well.”

Visit http://www.countdowntohalloween.com for more information!

Some of the greatest horror and Halloween seasonal music, audio dramas, sound effects and other spooky audio artifacts ever recorded are also, sadly, no longer available. Thankfully, the internet has charged to the rescue, with blogs and dedicated bloggers who find yesteryear’s spooky sounds, painstakingly convert them to digital formats from old LPs and cassettes, and then post them, often with a bit of background and even cover art!

Following are some of The Great Pumpkin’s favorite sources for ghastly audio ephemera. Good luck and good hunting!

Scar Stuff – Named after the great, cheap, waxy scar-making make-up that you could get at any drug store in the 70′s and 80′s, Scar Stuff was one of the first blogs to really find great stuff and post it online. Sadly, it appears that Jason is no longer posting, and many of the things he’s posted are no longer available, but there’s still stuff to be had, here…

The Mostly Ghostly Music Sharing Blaaaahhhggg – Once a standard blog, the owner of the MGMSB was plagued by spammers and overly-restrictive TOS issues, so he moved everything to a discussion board format. It requires a small investment of time to learn the ropes, but your rewards will be many.

Digital Meltd0wn – While not strictly horror or Halloween, there are dozens of posts that are horror-related, especially featuring out-of-print movie soundtracks.

Vinnie Rattolle’s – Like Digital Meltd0wn, this blog is devoted to offering up weird bits of forgotten culture and, like DM, much of that is horror-related.

The Manchester Morgue – Find many classic horror soundtracks at this one.

Monster Shindig – Not posting much lately, but lots of great stuff in the archives.

These are just a few favorites – you’ll discover more sites linked from those. Have fun! Here’s a classic to start you off – Disney’s Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of The Haunted House! Get it at HERE!

What: A Kid’s Halloween Art Contest
Who: Children ages 10-14
When: Now thru August 31st, 2010. The winner will be announced by September 7, 2010
Where: Online at the EHAG Facebook Page and EHAG Blog
How: Parents email an image of your little ghoul’s Halloween themed artwork to ehaagartists@hotmail.com along with the young artist’s name, age, date, contact info, title of piece and medium used.
Prize: $100 gift certificate for art supplies from the winner’s art supply store of choice.

Be as creative as possible and all artwork must be created solely by the young artist. We ask that no gore be depicted. Artwork will be judged based on originality and use of medium, and all mediums will be accepted. (All EHAG family members are excluded from participation.)

The artists of EHAG are obviously not the first generation to create Halloween art, and we certainly will not be the last. So, we decided to sponsor a kid’s art contest that both celebrates our most favorite holiday and nurtures their creative spirit! And, as we know that there must be children out there that love both art and Halloween, why not begin to encourage them today!

Good luck, and we look forward to seeing your creative Halloween art entries!

Writer/Director Adam Green (Hatchet, Frozen, Spiral) has been making short films for Halloween for 11 years and The Cult of the Great Pumpkin recently discovered “JACK-CHOP”, a hilarious parody of the Slap Chop commercial. This video is NOT safe for work and NOT child appropriate, but it’s too funny not to post.

See Green’s other Halloween shorts on his website – click “Shorts”, then “The Halloween Shorts”.

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As I type this, there are 2 major discount coupon codes active at http://www.OldFashionHalloween.com – code Old40 will you get you 40% orders of $25 or more; code Vintage30 will get you 30% off purchases of $25 or more. I think the Old40 code is only going to be good for a few more hours, so don’t wait!

OldFashionHalloween.com is a terrific source for classic/vintage-style Halloween accessories and decorations. Be sure to check out the Clearance section, too!

Summer’s path has led to winter’s threshold.
Its entrance moonlit as foresaid.
Enter gravely or with revelry bold
for with you, also pass the dead.

Bruce Walters’ Halloween Flight is an astonishing art series that captures the very essence of Autumn and Halloween, a series of graphite-on-paper images that exhibit a masterful command of space, motion and composition (and spookiness!).

Take the Flight HERE.

Pumpkin carving has become an artform of its own, and Stoneykins is a pumpkin carver’s dream, with hundreds of patterns, sensational pumpkin carving galleries, carving/stencil how-tos, a message board and more!

While the Cult of the Great Pumpkin has taken a decidedly tongue-in-cheek approach to expressing our love of Halloween, the Halloween Army is fighting the spooky fight in a more direct fashion, with a no-nonsense Mission Statement swearing to fight the negative rumors and misinformation surrounding Halloween, and educating those that need it about the holiday’s true genesis and history. Enlist at http://www.halloweenarmy.org!

MAKE: Online has a fantastic and creative archive of Do-It-Yourself Halloween projects, costumes, decorations and more at http://blog.makezine.com/archive/halloween/ . To discover even more projects and possibilities, use the SEARCH feature at the top of the page.